Final Fantasy VIII: Ressurection
by Rob Fenix
Summary: The end is beginning. Squall is gone, and things have gone awry. The Order has risen and is posing a threat to humanity. Ten and his siblings are plotting something on their own agenda. Squall must return and face his demons if he is to save the world.
1. Chapter 1

March 3rd, the wedding day. On that day she was to become more than just a woman, more than just the half-sorceress. On that day she was to become a Lion. On that day she was to become Rinoa Heartilly-Leonhart, and live happily ever after with her groom: Squall Leonhart.

But when August 16th came around, Squall mysteriously vanished, and a new power rose in Balamb. The Order, as it was called, began enslaving all those in the garden, and murdering those who stood in their way. At Rinoa's call, the old gang reformed. Irvine, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and even Seifer Almasy, all rose and began plotting to overthrow the order. But, betrayal lied around every corner, and the Order got word of the resistance movement, promptly killing Professor Quistis Trepe.

Out of sorrow for the death of his favorite teacher, and the disappearance of the man he thought would always be around to save the day, Seifer Almasy picked up his gunblade, and assumed the role of commander in chief of the Balamb Resistance.

Those who stood against Seifer during the Sorceress War, now stood beside him, looking to him, admiring him.

There was one pair of eyes, however, that did not stare in awe at the new commander. There was one pair of eyes that was looking at the blackened sky, and then at the Tower of The Order, wondering what happened to her hero. Rinoa Heartilly's spirit had been broken, and she had no wishes for over-throwing the order, or of avenging the death of her dear friend. All that she wanted right now, was to see her fiancè and run to their new home. For all the dream she had, however, she knew in her heart that the odds of her living to see his face again were slim to none.

"Where could he have gone to?" The wife-to-be asked the tall and beautiful gunman standing on her right.

"Couldn't answer that for you, Rinnie. I was supposed to be his best man 'n now he up and left me hanging. You know how much I paid for that rental?" Irvine Kinneas said, choking down the notion to begin yelling at Rinoa, demanding that she tell him why she let his best friend leave without telling her where he was going. When worst came to worst, Irvine was even more emotionally-crippled than Squall. He knew he loved his friends more than anything else, but was afraid to let anyone else know it.

"It doesn't matter where the pussy went to, because what matters is that he isn't here, and we are. And, over there," The second man motioned at the large tower which erected from the middle of what used to be Balamb. "Is the enemy. At the m'ment, we're losing...But soon, we will take them down with a fury...a fury that would make Squall shudder."

"Well, Liutenant Dincht, we don't exactly have that kind of power, do we?" Irvine asked his old friend, at which Zell threw his arms in the air and made a rude gesture at the pretty man.

"Don't sweat it, Z, I'm sure that as soon Seifer is thinking of some super special awesome plan that will tear the Order a new one as we speak!" a cheerful yellow blur said as it whizzed across the beaten down room, knocking things over as it did. Finally, after it had run around the room enough to make Zell nausous, the door swung open and the yellow blur collapsed on the floor, holding it's nose.

"Tilmitt, if you spent as much time practicing as you did annoying me, you'd probably be more powerful than Ultimecia and myself combined." Commander Seifer Almasy said as he walked coldly across the room and over to the empty throne-chair near the window. He plopped himself down it and waited to see which one of the soldiers around him would speak first. After five minutes of awkward silence, Seifer turned to Irvine.

"Any news on the Missing Soldier?" Seifer said in a mock-polite voice, trying his best to sound kind and compassionate about the absence of Squall from their group.

"...No, no news on him. Not that you asked me to get any news on him..." Irvine said finally, obviously fighting the urge to whip out the rifle from behind his chair and shooting Seifer in the head.

"Oh, didn't I? Sorry, then. That aside, Chickenwuss, I have a mission for you." Seifer said, his familiar cocky grin stretched across his face. While in the past Zell would have taken offense to the remark, he realized what Seifer was trying to do. During Squall's absence, Zell had been stationed directly under Seifer, and he began to realize that Seifer was not the rude punk he had been in their teen years, and had grown vastly more mature than he had been, thanks to the second scar he had received from Squall.

"What is it, Commander?" Zell said to Seifer, trying his best to create the image that he was upset at being called Chickenwuss again.

"As you know, none of us stand a chance in hell against the Order. They've got more soldiers than we do, and each of them has more firepower than our entire army does. There's no way we could possibly take them on in a full-scale battle,"

"I love it when Commander Seifer gives us his pre-game pep-talks" Selphie muttered to Irvine, trying her best to keep it loud enough only for his ear, yet she neglected to put her hands up, or whisper for that matter.

"But, there is another way we can win this. Far from here, and I'm talking across oceans and mountains, is Esthar, and in Esthar, is it's president: Laguna Loire. He was once a soldier in the Galbadian army, and thanks to Leonhart, I have strong connections to him. Your mission: Go to Esthar, gather the soldiers he has for you there, and bring them back here. At that point we should have at least ten thousand well-trained, able-bodied men at our disposal."

"So that means we over-power the Order, right?" Zell asked Seifer, already tightening his boots for the journey.

"It means we have enough soldiers to put a pretty large dent in their forces."

It was three o' clock at night, and no one was around. He was walking alone, the leather on his shoes becoming dull, the mud on his pants becoming dirt. He had been walking for so long he had forgotten where he was going, or where he came from, but he remembered that he only needed to keep walking in a straight path, and that would get him where he didn't know he needed to be.

_I'll be here_

_Why..?_

_I'll be waiting...here_

_For what?_

_I'll be waiting for you so.._

_If you come here_

_You'll find me._

_I promise._

He didn't know why he heard that repeating in his head, only that he didn't want it to go. The rain started to pour down on him. "Shit" he said to himself silently as he slipped and fell face first into the ground, contemplating whether or not to get up. Then it hit him, in a flash he remembered it all. Edea walking down the hall telling her she was to die. The duel with his rival. When he risked it all in space to save her, and his death at the hands of the most powerful sorceress in the world. He placed his hands firmly on the wet ground and picked his head up, wiped his eyes free of the mud, and felt the famliar scar across the bridge of his nose.

"Rinoa" He called out hoarsely, not loud enough for anyone to hear. Not loud enough for even himself to hear. He doubted that, should the need arise, he could even summon someone to help him survive. And yet, it seemed it had been loud enough, for at that moment a mixture of fire and ice shot from the wet streets and there stood the old man he remembered from the beginning of the walk. The man who told him to walk in a straight line until he found where he was supposed to be, and didn't remember where he was coming from.

"You have done well, Little Sukoru. I'm glad to see you finally realized what you needed to do. Now, it seems, there's only one test for you to take." The old, limping man of aqua blue and inferno red eyes said to the haggard man who lay before him. The tired man had realized that it was pointless to talk, as the man would be able to hear his thoughts, and speaking would only hurt his laryngitis-ridden throat.

"I'm speaking, of course, of the last challenge. Your last trial, if you haven't figured it out." The mage said to the man on the ground. "YOU HAVE TO FIGHT ME, FOOL!" He screamed as he realized that the idiot had yet to realize what he meant.

The man on the ground, sick from head to toe, tired beyond the realm of comprehension, and barely realizing that someone was talking, was in shock. Did the old fool really expect him to fight him? Did he expect a man who was at risk of throwing up all his organs to fight one who could easily take down all the armies in the world while drinking a soda? Whether he did or didn't, the man didn't have time to ask, as the old man had held out his hand and formed a famliar sword.

"This is quite a nice blade, Sukoru, it really is. There being only three people in the world who actually know how to use it, I'd say you chose the best possible weapon." The old man said as he tossed it to his apprentice's side, drawing his own weapon: a pair of tattered old gloves which only barely stayed on his hands.

"I..cn't...d'it" The motionless body stated, hoping that the old man would accept this and let him rest a few days.

"If I were Ultemecia, or some other maniac, I wouldn't let you say that, and I would torture you until you said otherwise, at which point I would kill you." The old man said as he launched a wave of flames onto the back of his student, who screamed out in pain and turned over onto his chest, breathing heavily.

"Pleez...dn't..make me...d'it" He begged his master again, trying his best to put his arms over his chest, knowing what was coming next.

This time it was clear that the old man was annoyed. Without a word he lifted both hands and a sudden chill emerged all around the area. Houses that were over-heated began to freeze. Raindrops that were falling all around them turned into ice as they fell from the sky, and Sukoru's chest...it was turning from tan to blue, and then to white. He screamed out as loud as he could, which was only loud enough for himself to hear, and turned back onto his back, where he was greeted by more ice.

"Stp...plese..stop...yuu..crazy..old fool" He said as he lifted himself up, threw his right hand out, picked up the sword which he had carried since he joined the military academy as a young boy, and lifted it above his head, dashing aside to dodge the mage's oncoming barrage of magic attacks.

Rinoa was standing at the face of her wedding day. Her husband was dressed in a handsome blue uniform, and she dressed in a shining yellow silk dress. At her side was Quistis Trepe, who was smiling and wishing her good luck. On the side of her groom, was Irvine, he was clearly failing at his attempt to hold back tears. She looked back at Cid and Edea Kramer, locked in each other's arms and reminiscing about their own marriage. When she was at her happiest, however, something happened. The organ ceased it's playing, Quistis had run out of the room, and the man who was holding her hand in his was engulfed in a large flame, disappearing as soon as it burned itself out. She looked back at her Headmaster, wondering if this was part of the cermony, but saw he and his wife turning to stone before her eyes, the entire hall turning dark all around her. She began to scream but all that answered was her echo. Finally she looked down. She was bare-foot, and her toes were blowing away like pieces of dust. Her ankles, dust in the wind. Shins, waist, chest. Her neck was beginning to blow away, and she attempted to scream once more, and at this the rest of her body began to blow away.

Rinoa shot up from her bed, sweaty and already screaming. She threw out the covers and checked her toes, making sure that they were all still solid. She looked to the left of her feet, and saw her faithful friend Angelo sleeping in a ball, possibly having a dream of chasing squirrel's or marking territory.

Rinoa, on the other hand, was slowly creeping out of bed, reaching for the leather coat which had once belonged to the man she loved most in the world. She placed it loosely on her shoulders and walked out of her room, hoping that some fresh air would clear her head. She walked aimlessly throughout the corridor, not knowing exactly which way the door was due to the darkness. She knew that, had Squall been here, he could have led her throughout the entire compound with ease, as he had demonstrated on their first night together. The troubled princess began to remember that night. How long she had to convince Squall that she would not desert him, that she would always been standing next to him. She recalled him shyly taking his hand from his pocket and placing it in hers. Then, at the end of the night, when they retired into his room...

"What are you doing up, Heartilly?" A cold voice called to her from the end she could not see.

"Just getting some air, Seifer." She replied, trying her best to sound calm.

"Just getting air at four in the morning is not 'just' anything." Seifer said to her, flipping his hair out of his face as he walked over to her. "You had a dream about him, didn't you?"

There was no reply. Could he only be setting her up for an insult, or was he genuinely worried about her? True enough, he had been a rude prat to both her and her fiancè in the past, but could he be concerned for her mental state at the present moment? Finally, after what seemed an eternity of pondering, Rinoa replied.

"Yeah. I did. This wouldn't be the first time, either, I have them often." She spoke, walking forward with Seifer, not knowing exactly where he was leading her, but hoping it was out in the stars. "It's not that I don't like dreaming about him, I love it...It's just, I don't know where he is, and the dreams just keep telling me things..." She hung her head as she said these words, her voice breaking slightly.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, you love him. I would be upset if someone left me like that." Commander Almasy said as he opened the door to the exit, knowing that this was what she had been looking for.

"He didn't leave me. He'll come back, I know he will. He promised that he would." Rinoa said as she walked out of the stuffy militant compound, a smile arose across her face as she stared up at the moon.

"Right...He'll come back. If he doesn't, I'll be forced to kill him myself..." Seifer said, turning away from Rinoa to sit on a bench.

It was at that moment that it hit Rinoa, she didn't know why she hadn't asked this earlier, perhaps because she had been wrapped in her own thoughts.

"Seifer, did _you_ have a dream about him?" She said to Seifer, turning on her heel to face him.

For a moment Seifer did not respond.

"Yeah. He's somewhere far away, really far...He's beaten up pretty badly, but he's fighting." He said finally, deciding that he could trust Rinoa to keep this secret.

"What is he fighting for, Seifer?" Rinoa said as she sat down next to him, her voice now more serious.

"For you...For us. He didn't actually speak in the dream, but it was like I was reading his thoughts. He knows something that we don't, and is getting killed for it." At these words Seifer began to choke up. Rinoa had never seen him cry, and always believed that he saw Squall as an inferior being, but now she realized just how special the relationship between the two men had been. "He wasn't supposed to leave. He's not supposed to die there. We're supposed to die at the others hands, that's how it is. Now he's gone off to get himself killed so we can all think of him as a hero as _we_ die at the hands of the Order. I hate him!"

Rinoa, who by now was in tears herself, did not take offense to this, as she knew exactly what Seifer meant. She placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke. She spoke words that she knew she hadn't planned on speaking, yet they came out crisp and clean as if rehearsed.

"Squall will come back. He'll come back to us. And when he does, you and I both can kick his ass so hard he'll wish he had died." She wiped her tears away and had a large smile across her face, hoping her best that he too would have one across his.

"Yeah! I'll show him who the real hero is around here!" Seifer said as he jumped from his seat and punched an imaginary Squall. Not far off from where he had punched, a disturbance had occurred. Moggles and Chocobo were running widly in every direction, and fire was spreading faster than it had arrived.

"What exploded?!" Rinoa shouted as she hopped up and began to herd the animals safely into the compound. Her question went unanswered, however, as Seifer had already run inside and was waking everyone up.

"Attention! All SeeD and soldiers! There has been an explosion near point X97-345.9! ALL AVAILABLE SOLDIERS MUST REPORT FOR DUTY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!" And at that Seifer was gone. He charged out an open window, gunblade in hand, straight into the forest where the fire was at it's worst.

"Seifer, wait!" Rinoa called as she whipped the Blaster Edge out of the jacket she wore and began to run into the forest after her commander.

"Rinoa, what happened?!" Someone called behind her, causing her to stop at a halt, turn immediately, and point her Blaster Edge instinctively. It was Zell who was standing before her, fists locked, eyes still half-asleep, and his clothes wrinkled and worn.

"Some sort of explosion. Fire everywhere, we have to stop it!" She answered to her old friend as they both tore off into the forest. As she ran, the jacket which hung loosely on her shoulders fell off, however in her adrenaline she did not realize it, and continued running towards the hellish inferno.

Seifer was still running when he saw them. They were dressed in black and gold armor, each of them sporting silver hair and a scar across the bridge of their nose, similar to the one's which Squall and Seifer themselves had. Infact, if Seifer didn't know any better, he would say these were the same scars. Yet this was not what shocked him. He was not shocked to see that one of them had the same pressence as his old friend, or that one of them had the nunchaku of Quistis Trepe tied around his back. He wasn't even in shock to see them standing in the midst of the fire completely unharmed. What shocked him the most was the man who was standing at the point of their triangle. His eyes were as silver as the hair which he had flipped back, and it seemed as though he could see Seifer through the raging fire and the trees. Whether or not he could, Seifer decided not to find out. He leaped from his position, over the fires, and directly infront of them, his gunblade pointed at the silver-eyed man's throat.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to decide to pop in." The man with the gunblade at his throat said. When he spoke, however, he spoke not to Seifer, but to the air.

"Now, now, Ten, he didn't know what we could do, it's to be expected that he would be a little afraid." The second man said, his voice much more feminine than the first one, who was apparently called Ten, Seifer, who was an un-paralleled swordsman in Balamb Garden, knew that this fight would not be an easy one. The one he expected to be the most trouble was the one who had not spoken. He had his hood over his face, his head bowed low, and his arms tucked into his jacket. If any one of them seemed out of place, it was this man here. Seifer, however, felt uneasy seeing him standing there.Obviously not as violent as the other two, this man was the one who Seifer feared the most.

"I suppose you're right, Jett." The blind Ten said to the man who had spoken to him, looking over at the third man. "But, what do you think, Zeru? Should we kill him now?"

The third man did not speak, did not nod or shake his head, did not even seem to notice that he had been spoken to.

"I'm going to take that as a yes."

Seifer, who did not even realize what had just happened, just became aware of something. There was a rip in the air, he felt his hand being lifted from his gunblade, and then he saw himself flying across the grass and into a burning tree. He had been knocked out cold, and it did not even seem like anything had happened. The last thing he saw, was Ten standing above him, holding the gunblade in his hand.

"What should we do with him?"

"I say we burn him alive."

"We should make him one of us."

What were all these voices talking about? Burning someone? Making him one of them? Rinoa didn't know who was saying this, but he was certain from their tone that they were the one's who had caused the explosion. She threw her arm over in their direction, to lead Zell in as well, and they both stood directly infront of the three men, one of whom held the Hyperion, the gunblade of Seifer Almasy.

"Where's Seifer?!" Zell called out as he raised his fist. Rinoa began to look around for any sign of Seifer. Before she could actually spot him, however, the man who held the gunblade spoke.

"He's resting right behind you." He raised a lazy finger and pointed at Seifer's limp body, which, sure enough, was on the ground, beginning to smoke, yet still breathing. Rinoa ran over and pulled him out of the fire's way, and Zell launched out at the men, his fists beginning to fly. Zell, while confident in his own skills, had to accept right away that he was far out-matched. Jett had opened the attack. Zell expected him to be taken down easily, not having a weapon in sight. Right as the restless warrior's fists were about to connect with Jett's face, however, a blade shot out from his wrist and knocked the fist away. As the blood fell to the ground and Zell tried to comprehend what was happening, a second attack came, this time from Ten. With the gunblade in his right hand, Zell expected all the attacks to come from that side, and yet they did not. Zell began feeling blood dripping from his left shoulder. From his left leg, and yet he could not see what was causing him the pain. The answer came sooner than Zell had expected, as when the attacks stopped coming, Zell clearly saw a short katana in Ten's left hand. This katana was one like no other, for it had a hilt which totally consumed it's wielder's hand, and through the middle the blade was split, for what, Zell imagined, was so the attacker could catch his opponent's blade.

"So, you're mixing it up a bit. 'S fine with me!" Zell stated as he lifted his fists up in a defensive position, once again charging at Ten. Ten, being an arrogant little prick, simply held up the gunblade, intending for Zell to hit his head on it. Unlike during the Sorceress War, however, Zell does learn from his mistakes, and instead attacked Ten with a direct knee to the groin. Ten fell backwards and stuck the gunblade into a tree to steady himself. While he nurtured a broken pride, Jet decide to step in. He turned to Jett and held his knee up, readying himself for another knee. Jett cooly lifted his hands up and began shooting the blades out from his sleeve again. So, it wasn't my mind playing tricks on me. Zell thought to himself as he avoided the blades. Heel-flips, cartwheels, side rolls, all this Zell did to avoid being impaled by the blades, yet he knew he was running out of forest, which was still burning, and soon would be fatigued.

What he had forgotten, however, was that Rinoa was with him. While Zell was busy playing with Ten and Jett, (Zeru still seemed to be a stone) Rinoa had taken Seifer back to the compound and had brought Irvine back with her. The bullets soared through the air until they pierced Jett's shoulder. Jett became enraged and began onslaughting Rinoa and Irvine with blades, which distracted Zell enough to cause him to fail to notice that Ten had recovered, and was preparing to attack again. Deep into his spine Zell felt pain. He turned slowly and saw both the gunblade and the katana piercing his skin. He rapidly turned and threw a kick to Ten's chest, which promptly knocked both him and his blade off.

Irvine and Rinoa were having problems of their own. Occassionally, Rinoa would use her Blaster Edge to deflect a blade, which would give Irvine the chance to attack, yet hardly ever did the bullets actually hit Jett.

"Shit, Ms. Rinnie, I'm running out of bullets, here." He said to her, narrowly avoiding a blade to the throat. At that moment both he and Rinoa saw a weakpoint: Every blade has shot out of his sleeve, and the sleeves never touch. If he should try to shoot two blades at once, the blades will hit each other and possibly stab him, they would exploit that. Rinoa ran to the center, Irvine closely behind her. Jett instantly realized what was going on and stepped back, putting more distance between him and his enemies.

"If you think we at the Order are fools, you're way over your head." He said with a chuckle as he lifted only one arm at his center and shot Rinoa in the knee-cap. Irvine lept over his fallen friend and shot like wild, hoping against hope that he would get in a killing shot. Finally he saw a bullet fly that was going directly to Jett's head. Irvine smiled as his foot tapped the ground, the bullet only an inch away from it's target.

"Stop.." Called out an icy voice that none had heard before. At that moment both Ten and Jett smiled at their attackers, and what happened next no one can clearly say. Irvine's bullet hit nothing but air, Zell's fist slammed into a burning tree, and the three men were standing in the center of the fire, Zeru still standing quietly, his slender body glowing a pinkish light.

"You should realize that you have no chance against us. The Order will ressurect Him, and you will be the first one's we punish." Ten said as he lifted his hand into the air, and with a flash from the sky, the three had disappeared.

The fire had burned itself out, Rinoa had been taken to the infirmary, and Seifer had made a full recovery. He went back to the forest the next day to pick up his now black from the ash gunblade. Irvine and Zell spent the next few days trying to figure out, along with Seifer, who He was.

"They could have been talking about Ultemicia. I mean, she was the most powerful Sorceress ever to live." Zell stated, proud that he had solved the mystery.

"No, remember how we, including Squall, defeated her? Those guys made Ultemicia look like cake, and the Order has more like them. There's no way they're going to try and ressurect someone who's weaker than they are." Irvine said, nodding to the large amount of bandages Zell had all around his body.

"You told me they said 'him' not 'her', which means they were ressurecting a male." Seifer said, also squandering Zell's idea.

"Well, I didn't check, she _could_ have been a he." Zell said, hanging his head because he knew it was in vain.

Seifer was still lost in thought. Who could they have wanted to ressurect? If they did have so much power in just the three of them, and there were thousands more like them, who would they want to ressurect? He looked deep into his cup of water, watching the condensation on the glass. The questions all had obvious answers, but each time he thought of one they led to more questions.

"Irvine," Seifer began. "I want you to go to the library and look up anything that could relate to Him."

"But we don't know what He would be under." Irvine told his commander sarcastically.

"I mean, look up "Him" the actual words. Maybe Him is an acronym, or something." Seifer said, walking over to the window and looking down at the young SeeD's who were examining the remains of the fire. "Dismissed."

Irvine took off towards the library as soon as he exitted the room, but Zell stayed in his seat, waiting for his commander to address him.

"That explosion was destructive." He said finally, not looking at Zell but still at the SeeD.

"But, 's only as bad as it can get, ain't it?" Zell said, relaxing in his chair and almost yawning as he spoke.

"That's not as bad as it can get, you idiot. They were just teasing us with that. They knew one of us was going to think that's as bad as they can get. If they wanted to, they could have killed us all while we were taking our sweet time with them last night. It was a trap, Dincht, haven't you realized that by now?" Seifer said coldly, turning around and now speaking with an insulting tone.

"But what can we do? Squall's gone, and without him we don't have--" Zell began, but was promptly cut off by a shout from the lips of Seifer.

"Leonhart is not here! He's not our big problem right now! Rinoa is a wreck because he left, and none of the soldiers trust me! Whether or not he's even still alive is still a debate! Okay, stop living in "If he were" because he's not, I'm all you've got!" Seifer said coldly, throwing his fist onto the desk. Zell could tell he had touched a nerve by mentioning Squall, yet still wished that he were here instead of Seifer. He rose from his chair and left the room, Seifer's head buried in the desk, still shouting about Squall. Zell had believed that no one could miss him more than Rinoa, but could he have been wrong?

"How long are you going to sleep?" The voice called to him, disturbing his peaceful dreams. He woke with a fright, shooting up as best as he could, which was only three inches due to the state his body was in. He felt warmer than he had the previous night, noticing that he was now in the house of the old hermit, wrapped in a large blanket and with a wet cloth over his forehead. He smiled slightly as he looked out at the sun through the dusty window.

"How long has it been, old man?" He said finally, turning over to face his master.

"Far too long. Get out of bed, don't you have people that are waiting for your return?" The old master said to his down and beaten student.

"Probably. Just let me ask you one more thing, Ayon. What was it that caused me to gain up the strength to fight you last night?" The man in bed said to his master.

"The reason I am called Master, Sukoru" Ayon began. "Is because I have 'mastered' myself. You can master every single form of fighting there is, and still you won't necessarily be called a master. When you discover, as you did last night, that your limits are not walls, but challenges to be overcome, you begin to attain mastery. Once you actually overcome your limits, you truly have right to the title of master. You, my friend, are on that trail"

"So now I'm a master?" The weak man said hopefully.

"Who do you think you are, Superman? No, you've still got a long way to go." Aryon stated bluntly, scratching his chin as his student groaned and turned onto his stomach. "Now, get up, we've got a lot of training to do tonight."

It was a brisk night. The wind was blowing into his face, and the rooftops were moist thanks to the rain of the previous night. He looked ahead and saw his master, clothed in only his pants and a light pair of shoes, gracefully _flying _across the rooftops. He became angry at how mediocre seeing an old man, who walked with a cane, made him seem, add the fact he was turning back to taunt him at every chance, the student felt more like he was being trounced, rather than trained. An observation was made during the three seconds he was blinded in his anger, and the student realized that he need only mimic the old man's movements and he too could soar. He placed his left foot forward and rest his weight on the ball of it, beginning to bounce himself on his feet. He leaned forward slightly and launched himself from his resting point. Not at a walk, however, at a full speed run. He was truly going back to the river, giving it all he had, while still knowing that he could lose it all should he fail. One step, two step, three. He had done it, his movements were almost as graceful as the old man's. The cold feeling he had (due to the fact that his master insisted that he dress only in his white tee and sweat pants) suddenly lifted from him, and he instead felt a soothing sensation massaging his body. It was at this point, however, that the winds changed. It was a very dark night, the stars still coevered by the clouds, so he could not exactly see what happened, but he definitely felt it. It whizzed past his ear, causing blood to fall slowly. He turned his head slightly, trying to see what it was that had cut him, but he saw nothing. He turned back around to question his master, and it was then that he realized what was happening. What was attempted was not exactly what happened. Sukoru attempted to, and in his mind succesfully did, perform a side-breakfall, landing on his index finger and pinky, then avoid any further skirmishes with the blades which were flying by him. What really happened, however, was as soon as his weight dragged him down, Aryon had picked up another blade and thrown it directly at the area where Sukoru's foot was, which was soon where his gut would be. The student realized this in just the right moment and brought his leg up so as to possibly get stabbed in the thigh, rather than be gutted, and then slammed his hand infront of it, to catch the blade before it could come into contact with any part of his body. Unfortunately, neither of these tactics worked, and Sukoru was imapled by the blade. His body went limp and he rolled off the rooftop, hitting sides of the buildings as he fell, until finally his back found a nice rocky area on the ground and stuck itself there. The old master laughed furiously at the sight of this, and, after five minutes of crying tears of laughter, lept down and walked over to his student, outstretching a hand to help him up. Then came the biggest surprise the old man had seen in his entire life. Rather than place a hand weakly into his hand, Sukoru grabbed onto his wrist, wrenched it aside, and drove the dull side of the blade into the forearm of his master. Aryon's eyes widened, his breathing became heavy, and his entire of view of his student was overturned.

"How long have you been able to do that?" He said finally, his voice sounded quite angry. Sukoru did not hesitate to answer, and said cockily,

"Since about twenty seconds ago."

"I'm afraid I don't fully understand." Aryon puzzeldly said. Sukoru could not tell if he was being rude or sincerely could not understand what he meant.

"I've been training like crazy since I entered Balamb Garden, and now with you. Naturally, you learn how to improvise." Sukoru informed his master, surpressing his arrogance as much as he could, so as not to get the move reversed in his sleep.

"Well, I suppose that was a mistake on my part...You're farther along on the path to mastery than I had thought. Now, apprentice, there is only one thing I can teach you. Once you learn this, you will truly become a master, and will rival me in power." At these words Sukoru froze. Ever since he had begun training, his master had been nothing but sarcasm and jokes, yet now he was speaking in the most serious of manners. He turned on his feet and walked steadily back to his home, motioning for his student, soon to be his equal, to do the same.


	2. Change of Tides

"Any news on him yet?" A feminine, yet authoritative, voice called.

"None at all." The second, just as cold but more masculine voice said.

"We need him for Ressurection." The feminine voice said again

"I'm aware of this, but at the present moment we don't have any clue as to where he is." The second voice replied

"Ten, we need to find him immediately. The time is almost here." A third voice said, much deeper than the other two.

"I know, Jett."

The three heads of the Order were arguing over something. What it was no one was to know besides them, as they were speaking in an empty room in hushed voices. Jett was carving something into the table, Ten was pacing the floor, and the third was reclining against the wall, apparently lost in thought. It was storming outside. The raindrops were pounding against the windowpane, which caused a loud echo all across the former Balamb Garden.

"What about the other one? The one who attacked us the other night? He seemed to be even more powerful than the one we're looking for now." Jett suggested, looking up hopefully at Ten.

"Almasy? True enough, he does have power. But he lacks the Key. He can't be the one we need, because we would have been able to sense him when he was coming." Ten said, taking his sunglasses off and wiping them off on his sleeve.

"More than that, we know that he's useless. We both know who we come from, and we both know that he's the fourth Key that we need." Zeru said, not looking up at the other two, but instead out the window. The other two nodded their heads, and Ten shot a look that said "stupid" at Jett, which he apparently missed. The thunder crashed outside and the compound in which the Resistance resided was in clear view. Ten stared at it for the brief second it was viewable, and then raised his hand quickly, pointing at it.

"Tomorrow!" He shouted, the other two looked up at him. Both of their eyes were just as silver as Ten's, even Zeru's who were in plain sight through the hood. "Tomorrow, we'll launch an attack. We will crush the Resistance tomorrow, then we'll hold his fiancèe hostage. He'll come for her, I know he will. He'll give us what we want if we hold onto her for a while." Ten said, his eyes reflecting the lightning outside, an evil tone in his voice. The other two looked out the window, apparently liking the idea of crushing those who were hindering their plan. They continued to stare and Ten excused himself from the room, preparing to alert the other members of the Order of the plan.

The storm had ended late into the night. Seifer awoke just as he would any other morning: Fell from his bed, lazily drinking his coffee, hoping to catch a glimpse of Fujin coming out of the shower (which he once again failed at). What separated this day from the others, however, was what was waiting for him just outside compound. Zell stood with a large grin across his face. Behind him was an army of ten thousand soldiers, all wearing the Esthar emblem on their right arm. At his side, was the familiar face of Laguna Loire.

"Commander Seifer, good to see you again" Laguna called, walking over to him and smiling slightly. Seifer, for some reason, was stunned. He was sure that he had seen the face somewhere before, although not on the face that he was on the man who was before him.

"...Good to see you to, Laguna." Seifer finally replied, deciding that his eyes were just playing tricks on him.

"I see you finally passed your SeeD exam." Laguna said calmly, nodding at the SeeD badge Seifer had sown on his jacket. Zell had to ponder this comment for a moment, what did Laguna mean by that? It then hit him, he remembered the first time that Seifer took the test, he had failed while both Squall and Zell passed. Zell covered his badge with his hand, because it showed that Zell had seniority over his commander. Seifer noticed what his former toy was doing, and became red with anger. Laguna, however, seemed obvlivious to this and began to speak of how well-prepared his soldiers were.

Prepared or not, Seifer was treating them just like all the other soldiers. The hours were spent in intensive training, with the soldiers from Balamb fighting against those from Esthar. Swords were crashing, guns were thundering, fists were flying. Anybody who could fight, was now. The sweat fell and created a small pool. Selphie complained to Rinoa at how dirty it was, yet Rinoa paid it no mind and continued her training. Seifer had assigned all those who fought with Squall during the Sorceress War a troop. Zell was teaching his troops the fastest ways to take a man down. Irvine was showing them the best guns and how to use them. Selphie (who had the smallest troop) was teaching them some rigorous stretches. Rinoa, on the other hand, was working them like dogs. She told them to come one at a time at her, and she would take them all down. She insisted that she was teaching them, but instead seemed to be bullying. She had replaced her blaster edge with the chain whip which her friend Quistis Trepe once used. Each of the troops were extremely tired, and desired more than anything a rest, but things soon only became worse for everyone in the compound.

"Commander, commander!" One of the SeeD screamed as he ran towards Seifer, panting like a mad-man. Seifer threw down one of the soldiers he was sparring with and turned to the exhausted man who appeared behind him. "Commander. Coming this way. Thousands of them...They're here. It's the Order."

Seifer's eyes widened and the compound became silent. He turned to his soldiers and ran up the steps to the roof of the compound, taking out his pocket telescope and looking out into the forest. Thanks to the fire, Seifer could clearly see them. The Order was marching towards them. His soldier had been wrong, however, there weren't thousands of them. They were nearing the Hundred Thousands, each of them dressed in a black coat and holding their weapons in hand. Seifer lept from his post and ordered the soldiers to take their positions.

Chaos engulfed the compound. The soldiers, exhausted from all the training they had been doing, picked their weapons up lazily and reported to their captain's. Rinoa ran up to Seifer and Laguna, who were apparently planning out the attack.

"Let's go." She said, pushing the two men apart. They stared in awe at her next movement. She threw her arm over her shoulder and hopped off the 50-foot roof, landed gracefully on the ground, and stood firmly waiting for the Order to arrive. Further shocking the men, her troop marched towards the gate, prepared to fight behind her.

"She's crazy. She's only got 400 men, she can't possibly stop them" Laguna said, running down from the roof and ordering his troops to old their positions.

"...Rinoa" Seifer said, looking up at the impending doom.

"How nice, the welcoming party." Ten said as he approached the front gate, standing infront of all his soldiers, each of which had a vacant expression on their faces.

"I'm going to make you pay for what you did to Quistis." Rinoa spat at him, swinging the whip above her head.

"You mean the whore who's face I smashed in?" Ten replied coldly to her. "I'll tell you what," He turned back to his soldiers. "None of you kill her, okay? You let her come at me." He said as he slipped into the back of them, letting them all charge out at her.

Rinoa threw her arms forward and her men exploded from behind the gate, tearing like crazy at the army which clearly out-numbered them. Rinoa ran in the center of them, swinging her whip so fast that no one could tell what she was doing with her hands.

The battle had begun. Rinoa was swerving between soldiers, taking them out with hard strikes to the knee's. They fell, and the soldiers who ran behind her would swiftly kill them as they fell. While she was breaking one of them, however, she turned back and saw the one's who had recently fallen rising from the ground, marching again to the gate. She had no idea what was going on, so she tore back and began whipping them again. Once again, even when they had been shot by some of her soldiers, they rose and continued marching. Rinoa kept knocking them down, and they kept marching forward. Even worse, she saw, was the one who was running up to her. It was the big man of the group. Jett had his blades ready, and was pointing one directly at Rinoa. He laughed as he lunged at her, yet suddenly fell back on his hindquarters. His attack had been deflected by none other than Laguna. The rest of the soldiers had broken out of the compound and were slicing and shooting down the Order. Laguna had already gone on ahead, pulling Rinoa with him (who trampled Jett under-foot). Jett rose, a large footprint on his face, and cracked his neck. He turned around and aimed one of his blades at Rinoa. Suddenly he felt something pressing against his neck and on his shoulder. It was a blade resting on his neck, and a harpoon on his shoulder.

"It's not very nice to shoot someone in the back." Kiros Seagill said to the man in black, at which Ward Zabac nodded. The three men engaged in combat, with Jett being over-powered. Kiros was blinding him with speed, and Ward kept knocking him away with strength.

Seifer and Irvine were back to back. Seifer was cutting down the soldiers that approached him, and Irvine was happily shooting away at them.

"One, two, three, four." He said in a sing-songy voice, counting how many soldiers he was taking down.

"Cut them down like a wild boar." Seifer sang back, slicing one of the soldiers in half.

"Who taught you your nursery rhymes, Almasy?" Irvine said, running forward to protect Selphie from an attack to the back. Seifer lept into the air, slicing down some of the Order's soldiers who had become airborne.

Zell was playing tennis. He and his troop were throwing the soldiers to each other and taking turns knocking them down. The battle was in the favor of the Resistance, and it looked like the war may soon be over. The winds soon changed, however, as Zeru and Ten simultaneously raised a hand in the air, and darkness covered the area. Lightning crashed all around, and then light shot out from the darkness.

"Oh...shit" Irvine said as he dive-rolled out of the way of a giant metal object which had just crushed several soldiers of the Order and the Resistance.

Ten and Zeru hopped onto the Guardian Force Alexander as it began to blast away at the soldiers, killing many and giving the fallen members of the Order time to heal and rise again. Dust shot in every direction, the captain's were ordering their troops to swerve out of the way of the behemoth. Irvine had narrowly avoided one of the object's blasts when he saw her. Selphie had been hit, and was flying in the air, back into the roof of the compound. Irvine screamed out and began shooting like crazy at the object, the bullets bouncing off and killing whichever poor soul happened to be in range.

"You...killed Selphie. YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Irvine fell to his knees and began crying, throwing his gun aside and waiting for one of the soldiers to come and slit his neck. None of his friends seemed to notice what he had done, as they were all busy trying to stay alive. He turned and saw several of the Order coming towards him, blades in hand. He lowered his head to embrace his fate, when suddenly he felt something brush by his ear. The opposing soldiers fell in half, and Irvine's gun had suddenly been kicked back over to him. He rose and looked up to see what had just saved him. He couldn't tell what yet what it was, and only saw rips in the air everywhere.

"I'm sorry, dear. We didn't count on you being so strong. It looks like you're going to have to settle with dying by my Guardian Force." Ten said, pushing his sunglasses up his nose, which served as a signal for Alexander to lift it's "leg" and crush Rinoa. She lifted her whip and prepared to fight until the bitter end, when suddenly she was out of harm's way. Ten's eyes widened at who he saw standing next to Rinoa.

"I found my jacket under a pile of leaves. I didn't think you'd be that mad at me." The familiar voice said to her. She froze in place at who had spoken. It was him. The one who had been gone this entire time. "I guess next time I should take it with me." He continued. His gunblade flew through the air as he ran up the side of Alexander. It was Squall Leonhart. He had come back, now sporting a small stubble, and with tears all over his clothes. He was much quicker than before, and was slicing Alexander up like butter. Finally he came to it's "head", lept, and sliced it clean off. He landed gracefully on the ground as the head fell behind him. He rose quickly and began slicing at the soldiers of the Order. Those who realized he had arrived were in awe at what was happening. Not only was he not being touched by the Order, but when he sliced them, they died. Even more in the favor of the Resistance was what happened next. While Squall was knocking the enemy down like bowling pins, a familiar red aircraft was shooting them down. It was the Ragnarok, and inside it was Selphie Tilmitt and Cid Kramer. They had been rebuilding it since the Sorceress War, and decided to take it out for a test run. The soldiers of the Resistance shouted out with glee as they began to fight behind their rightful commander. His friends circled around him, aiming at the remaining twenty thousand soldiers.

"Nice of you to join us, Squall." Zell said, knocking one away with a swift punch.

"Here I was thinking you'd gone on a vacation." Irvine said as he broke the jaw of one of the soldiers with a spinning gun maneuver.

"If you survive this battle, I'm going to kill you when it's over." Rinoa said as she knocked down three of the soldiers.

"I'll keep that in mind." He replied as he ran forward, slicing down many of the soldiers. The Ragnarok was good on ammo, so it was taking Order members as quickly as they rose. It was at that moment that Squall received his second scar from Seifer Almasy. Atop of the shattered body of Alexander, Seifer was dueling with Ten. The one who held the upper-hand was easy to spot. Seifer was on one knee, slowly parrying Ten's onslaught. Ten was furiously pounding on Seifer, and suddenly it happened. Seifer's gunblade flew out of his hand and Ten's sword struck. Blood shot out from his chest and he fell off of the Guardian Force, hitting the ground with a thud.

Squall screamed out as he saw his old rival die. He ran towards Ten, holding his gunblade at his side. Suddenly something was in his way. He could not see right away what had stopped him, but after stopping an inch away from it, he realized what it was.

"So you did make it." Zeru said, raising a hand and smacking him away with ease. Squall rose and slashed at him, yet for some reason the slash missed and only managed to cause a rip in the air. He slashed again, and still nothing could happen. Squall became angry and threw a powerful kick into the groin of Zeru, yet nothing seemed to happen. This time he knew that Zeru had not used magic, as the hit definitely hit him. Then he realized what it was.

Zeru removed the hood, and there was the face. It was a woman's face, silver and blue hair pulled behind her ear. Zeru raised a hand and knocked Squall away, laughing as she did. Squall rose and began to slash at her again, this time actually making contact. It was a small cut, barely on her cheek. But the blood fell and it was then that Squall realized she was different from the rest of the Order. No one else bled, yet there she was. She became angry and looked up at Ten, who shook his head at her and the anger in her eyes grew to catastrophic proportions. She closed her eyes, and Squall could not breathe. He saw the world flash, and then it was over. The soldiers which he had killed were gone, and the few who were still alive remained, but the three who Squall had just met, yet already hated, were gone. The final few soldiers fell, and Squall looked around to see what the damages were. There were only a handful of soldiers now, but the Order had been completely annihilated. Squall walked over to the body of his old rival, picked it up, and silently towards the compound. Nobody spoke.

That night was reserved for celebration. The Order had been defeated, and the Resistance still stood. The scent of alcohol could be smelled all throughout the compound, and loud music pounded through the night. Selphie had been dancing with Irvine all night, and Zell was stuffing his face with hot dogs. Outside the celebration, however, Squall and Rinoa were cremating their old friend. Rinoa was crying on Squall's shoulder, who was looking intently at his burning friend. He gently pulled Rinoa off of him and walked over to the tree which had Seifer's gunblade resting on it. Squall picked it up and a tear fell on it. He walked over to the burning corpse and tossed the gunblade into it.

"I'm sorry I left, Rinoa." Squall said as he turned to her.

"..." Rinoa found herself unable to speak. Was it rude of her to be happy that he was back, while a man lay burning infront of them?

"I did what I had to do. I knew what was coming. I knew I wouldn't be able to fight them in my present state." Squall said as he turned away from her. Her arms fell around his shoulders. He turned around and put his arms around her waist.

"I know what they want, Rinoa. They want to revive Him."

"Who is He?" She asked, the shaky voice no gone and replaced with the one Squall had remembered.

"Griever." He replied to her, her eyes fell to the necklace he had on.

"According to legend, in the land that would become Balamb, there was a deity known as Griever. He was, as you know, a mystical lion. What you don't know, however, is that he was terribly alone. So he created seven other lions to give him company. However, he created them almost as powerful as he was, and they became blood thirsty. Each one wanted the control of the world, and they began killing each other for it. Griever, very depressed from what he saw his children doing, rose up and destroyed each of them. Now he was more depressed than hever. He had become extremely powerful in the battle, but now had no one to play or talk with. It was then that he decided that instead of creating lions as powerful as he was, he would sacrifice all his life force to inhabit the world with all it's creatures, and watch over us. The Order wants to ressurect him in the hope that they may convince him to give them his power, so that they can destroy or enslave the world as they please." Squall said to his fiancèe, who was in shock to hear all this.

"Why would they want to do this?" Rinoa asked, totally perplexed.

"I don't know. At the moment, I really don't care. They're going to pay for what they did to Quistis and Seifer." Squall said as he looked up at the moon, whose light made Squall's face seem as white as Rinoa's. He looked back down at his fiancèe. They stared deep into each other's eyes, and their lips met.


	3. Race to The Observatory

The next few days were spent in relaxation. Squall was spending his days with Rinoa. Zell and Laguna were found investigating Balamb Garden, which seemed to be evacuated shortly after the battle. Selphie and Irvine were not to be found, apparently in some sort of retreat. After several days of waiting, Zell had an announcement.

"The Garden has been checked over and over, there's barely any sign the Order was there." He said to Squall, handing him the notes and photos of the Garden.

"Where is Laguna?" Squall asked his friend, flipping through the notes quickly.

"At the Garden, still. Apparently he has something to check out." He answered. "Squall, I know you just got back, and you're pretty hurt about Seifer...But it would really benefit us, all of us, if you moved us back into the Garden." Zell began, his eyes flowing all over Squall.

"I know, Zell. This place is just begging for an attack. But...We can't be too hasty to move back. We have no idea where the Order is, they could be waiting for us, plotting an ambush."

"So? We totalled them last time, we can do it again. There's only a handfull of them left, if they defeat us then it will be the same as the battle previously, just a different ratio." Zell said proudly, wanting nothing more than to return to his old room. Squall debated in his head all possibilities. There could possibly an ambush, but then again Zell had a point, there were more soldiers in the Resistance than there were in the Order. But what if they summoned more Guardian Forces? Bahamut, Leviathan, or even Eden? True enough, Squall had taken down Alexander with ease, but any of _those_ monsters would be far too much for him to handle. On the other hand, he did have Gilgemesh with him, and Gilgemesh had proven many times before to be more than a match for most G.F's.

"Fine. Alert everyone in the Compound, we're moving back home." Squall decided finally, Zell throwing his fist in the air happily. As good a news as this was to Zell, there was something that still troubled him. He had been wondering it ever since the battle, since Squall's arrival.

"Squall, one more thing...When we were fighting them, none of us seemed to be able to kill them. The only time we managed to get them to stay down was when you showed up. You seemed to know exactly what to do to kill them. Why is that?" Zell said to Squall, staring at him with inquisitioning eyes.

"While I was gone, I trained with a man who was in this situation before. He said that the Order wasn't composed of living beings, but of beings made up from the souls of others who have died. The Order, Zell..." Squall began, cutting himself off and turning to the window, staring out at Rinoa who was happily soaking her feet in a small pond which sat conveniently infront of the compound. "The Order is made up of me."

Zell was stunned. He had no recollection of Squall ever dying, or of being dead, as he was standing infront of him, talking and breathing just like everyone else.

"When we were fighting Ultemecia, if you recall, I became lost in the timestream. During that time, I "died" in all periods of time. Because of that, even though it really only happened in about two minutes, every time stream became aware of my death, so therefore I was dead all throughout history. It's because of that that the Order has soldiers who come from my soul. To that end, the only one who can kill them, is the one who they are based off of." Squall finished, turning back to face Zell, who was wearing a shocked expression on his face.

"So that entire time we were fighting them, we were fighting you?" Zell said, the words barely escaping from his mouth. His head seemed to be imploding upon itself, unable to grasp what was going on.

"From different time periods. Some of them were weaker than others because they were me from childhood. Others were more powerful, because they were me upon the defeat of Ultemecia." Squall said to Zell, who finally managed to stop drooling and accept the world around him.

The two men finished their conversation with those words, and Zell went on to inform everyone in the compound that they were to return to their home in Balamb Garden. The Estharian soldiers joined them, as they knew they were not to leave until Laguna departed as well. Squall repeated his story to his fiancèe and his other friends, Selphie being the only one to accept it the first time. Squall, while having the best grasp on things at the moment, was still puzzled as to the Triplets. Why did Ten, Jett, and Zeru bleed when none of the others did? If they truly were made from Squall, then they would die at his first touch, just like all the others, yet they stood unaffected. There was something to these Triplets, and Squall was determined to find out.

"What happened, Ten?" Jett asked his older brother, rubbing his swollen jaw. Ten had not spoken a word since their departure from the battle. Zeru had spoken once or twice, but only as cut-downs to Jett. Ten stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall. Where they were, no one could clearly say. The rocks in the area floated, the air was thin, and light was scarce. All present, save for Ten, were heavily injured. There were few soldiers left, and Zeru was angrily cutting them down.

"I can't believe I let him touch me." She screamed out angrily, knocking one of her soldier's heads clean of his shoulders. "We waited all that time, and when he comes back, he shuns us!" She screamed, a tear falling down her face. "What kind of brother does that? We are more like him than any of these half-breeds!" She said, her focus suddenly turning on Ten. Her red eyes flickered with flame and in a second she was an inch from him, a dagger at his neck. "It's your fault, too! If we had just killed them all like I said, we wouldn't have had to flee in disgrace. But no! You had to meet him! You had to see our legendary sibling, didn't you? You had to--" She was cut off, she felt the cold metal pressing against her flesh. The katana was held lazily in his hand, yet it seemed to be pushed in very deep. She loosened the grip on her dagger, giving back the air flow to her brother. Her eyes went back to their normal color, and Ten regained his familiar smile. He reached out and grabbed onto one of the floating rocks, tossed it up, and then threw his hand above it, catching it. He let go of it, watching it float, and began to roll it around his hand.

"You two don't realize where we are, do you?" He said, looking around. The other two knew he could not see a thing, being blind, but in his mind he saw the area better than either of them could. The coldness they felt was caused by snow in Ten's eyes. The floating rocks were not floating at all, but were falling slowly. "I didn't think so." He began again, the smile still on his face.

"We're in that land. The one that we were told of when we started this little campaign. This is where it all happened, friends. We'll find him here." The other two didn't understand what he meant, until the sleeve was rolled up. He rolled his coat sleeve up above his bicep and revealed to them the tattoo of Griever, who's eyes were suddenly shining a bright red. The other two knew what this meant, and checked their respective tattoo's, seeing the same occurance on the eyes of their Griever. Slowly, but confidently, the other two reached for a rock floating near them. They grabbed it and began to body-juggle it just as Ten was. Ten seemed to be greatly enjoying his playtime, while Zeru still maintained her surly attitude. Jett had no idea what was going on, and simply focussed on juggling his rock. As they juggled, the rocks began to spin. Faster and faster they spun, sediments shooting off in every which direction. Ten began to chuckle happily, Zeru's eyes glaring at him. Jett too, in an act of conformity, began to chuckle, seeing what was happening to his rock. They were becoming crystals, beautiful crystals. The most beautiful crystals in the world, which all shone of a different color. Ten's crystal was as clear as glass, and had a slight fog inside of it. Jett's crystal resembled a sapphire, shining from it's core. Zeru's crystal was flaming red, an eye swirling in the center of it. They threw their crystals in the air, and the crystals began to dance around each other. Creating an eerie, bell-like sound, they sung as they danced. The crystals spun around each other faster and faster, until finally they shot out a light between them, which grew larger and larger, until it formed the shape of a body. The crystal's flew back to their masters, each of which quickly pocketted them as they gazed upon their new creation. He was just as he was the other day, only this time with a stare as blank as Ten's. He stood in his usual militant fashion, waiting for orders from his masters.

"I suppose we'll need to find you a uniform, won't we?" Ten said finally, walking up to his new soldiers, patting him on the back and walking him around the area.

"You know who we are, I expect?" Ten said, stopping at Zeru's back. For a moment the soldier did not speak. His eyes were still just as cold as when he was alive, yet now they showed a hint of confusion. He seemed for a minute as though he were unable to speak, and finally his lips moved, a hoarse voice calling out.

"Ten." He said, motioning at the man who was touring him around the area. "Zeru." Looking at the woman who stood coldly infront of him. "And...Jett." Walking over to his third master, bowing deeply. Jett smiled and looked over at his sister.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I like him." He said, looking back down at his new toy. "What is it we're going to do with him, though?"

"Ah, well here's the problem. See, we can't exactly summon Griever until we have the fourth key. We can't get the fourth key to just walk up here and say "Sure, summon the most powerful being ever to come and take over my planet.," now can we? So, my plan is, we send out this little bugger, he gets Squall's attention, Squall grabs his friends, they get their big weapons, raid our castle, we have a big showdown, then we happily summon our deity and proceed with our plans. Simple enough?" Ten said, patting the soldier on the back.

"Not a bad plan at all, brother. But when you say "raid our castle," do you mean raid our pile of dirt?" Zeru said rudely, yet sincerely, as there was nothing but dirt all around them.

"Well we're going to have to build one, aren't we?" Ten said, clapping his hand for his soldier to get to work, which he hastily did, albeit after a moment's pause.

Things were back to normal at the Garden, the soldiers were happy to have their old rooms back (along with several new roommates, since Laguna had yet to leave.) It was a beautiful day. The flowers were blooming again, the sky was shining brightly on the Garden, and everyone had a smile on their face. Laguna and Squall were taking a walk around the Garden, buried deep in their conversation.

"I'm aware that your losses recently have been great. Particularly with the loss of Seifer, but your friends need you strong right now." Laguna said to Squall, who was walking on ahead, turning abruptly to face the man walking with him.

"I know. I came back to be strong for them, I know what it takes to be a leader, I'm up for it." He answered, staring eye to eye with Loire. Laguna stared at him

for a moment, his jaw falling open.

"You look...Famliar." He began. "I can't put my finger on it, and I know we've met before, but your face, I'm clearly seeing it for the first time now...You just feel famliar, like I knew you a long time ago." Squall didn't understand what he meant by this. How could he _feel_ familiar? He was who he was, and he wasn't ever anyone else.

"I don't..." But before he could finish the sentence, he understood what Laguna meant. He looked back at the man's face and what he saw shocked him. It wasn't the face of a man he'd seen only a handful of times in his life. It wasn't the face of the man who he saw in the papers, the president of Esthar. This face, he knew. He'd known it for the 23 years he'd been alive. It was _his_ face. Before, when his face hadn't yet fully developed, he had not noticed it. But now he knew that this man and he had similar features.

"You do look sort of familiar..." Squall said, his eyes looking all throughout the man standing before him. Neither could decipher what connected them, yet they knew their lives were somehow linked. Squall, however, had decided that enough was enough, and changed the subject.

"So...how is Ellone?" He asked, turning his back on Laguna and walking forward. Laguna stopped ubruptly and squatted to his knee's.

"Ellone is...I don't know." Laguna said with a sigh, plucking one of the flowers out from the grass. "She left Esthar shortly before I did. She said there was something out there...calling to her. I don't know what she could have meant, but she left before I had time to ask questions." Squall couldn't comprehend why his Sis would just upand leave like that, and he was once again tormented by the demon which reminded him of her initial departure from Matron Edea's Orphanage. He remembered that day so clearly. He was standing out in the rain, screaming out for his big Sis, yet she would not return his calls. He spent the next years of his life in Balamb, covering up his emotions so the pain would never return. Now, however, he was more open and willing to accept others, yet this news had come close to locking him up again. Now Squall was faced with a dilemma: Continue fighting the war against now-invisible enemies, or depart and look for his missing sister. Before he had time to truly consider his options, however, he and Laguna were succesfully distracted by Selphie Tilmitt tearing down the walk, Irvine Kineas not far behind her. Selphie was wearing Irvine's hat on her head and making rude gestures at him every so often. Irvine was red in the face and lunged at her, attempting to bring her to the ground. Selphie, however, seemed to be playing Road Runner and Coyote with Irvine, and disappeared just as quickly as she appeared. Irvine didn't bother to pick himself out, deciding to wait for her to lap around the Garden until she tired herself out. Laguna, who had almost been the target of Irvine's tackle, picked himself up and kicked Irvine in the side.

"Care to explain what's going on?" He asked Irvine, who was breathing quite hard and cursing under his breath.

"Damn girl...I walked into her room, planning to ask her on a date with me, but I kind of didn't knock, so I didn't get the news that she had just come out of the shower...So there was some yelling, some throwing of blunt objects...Next thing I knew, she was dressed, grabbed my hat, and ran out." Irvine answered, his head buried in the ground. Laguna and Squall both burst out laughing, Irvine making the same rude gesture that Selphie had made. After two minutes of gut-busting laughter, Selphie was coming back around the bend, still screaming out what Irvine had done, not showing any ounce of exhaustion. Squall, however, gave Irvine a look that said "Watch and learn" and held out his foot. Just as he had planned, Selphie fell face first onto Irvine, crying out in pain because she had just crushed her nose. Irvine picked her up by the wrists and the two walked off, screaming at each other. Laguna and Squall looked at each other, stifling laughter. A moment later, however, their laughter was interrupted. A SeeD was running towards them, out of breath. He paused right infront of Squall and began without being addressed.

"Commander Leonhart...I have a...message...for you." He huffed out, his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Squall turned to face him, his laughing face quickly disappearing.

"What is it?" He asked his soldier.

"Rinoa, she says it's important that you come to the Headmaster's chamber immediately." The soldier said after catching his breath. "That's all I know. If you'll excuse me.." He ran off, looking for someone else to give a message to, apparently. Squall and Laguna walked up to the building, both wondering what could warrant such an emergancy.

"What is it, Rinoa?" Squall said as he entered the room, looking around and seeing Rinoa pointing something out on a map, standing right next to Headmaster Cid Kramer and his wife Edea. Laguna had left Squall on the elevator, finding his two companions and deciding to stay with them the rest of the day. Rinoa apparently had something important to tell him, as she looked up at him with a grave look on her face. Nobody spoke for a moment, then suddenly the voice Squall had heard since his first day at the Garden broke the silence.

"It seems that there's a very big problem in space." Cid Kramer stated, not looking up at Squall, still down at his map. "In between Lunatic Pandora and the moon, there's a space station known as the Orion Observatory which monitors the activities inside the box, and the crystal which it holds." He continued, now looking up at Squall and removing his glasses. "While it was flying smoothly for it's first few months, we just received an alert that something, or someone, is destroying it from the inside." Squall understood what his headmaster wanted, but didn't have a way to get into space. The Garden had no space program, so there was no way for them to make it to the station. Edea, however, seemed to have read his mind, and opened her mouth to speak.

"The Ragnarok has had certain modifications since the Sorceress War. It's not capable of deep space travel, but it should be more than enough to make it to Orion Observatory." The former Sorceress's voice said, still touched with a hint of depression. Squall had nearly forgotten that Edea was heavily traumatized by the event, yet now realized why she was such a recluse in the Garden. "Get Irvine, Zell, Selphie and whoever else you want on your squad, then depart immediately."

Soon after, Squall Leonhart, Rinoa Heartilly, Zell Dincht, Irvine Kineas, Selphie Tilmitt and Kiros Seagill, who had elected to go, were standing infront of the Ragnarok, preparing to depart to the Observatory. They walked briskly onto it, Selphie taking the captain's seat and commanding the others to take their seats and place their seatbelts on. Cid's voice rang in through the aircraft, preparing to count down. "5..." Squall and Rinoa locked hands. "4..." Zell began playing on his PiiPortable3. "3..."Irvine locked himself in, putting his hat over his head for a nap. "2.." Kiros stared out the window, wondering what he would see up in space. "1..." Selphie grabbed onto her throttle and shaft. "LIFT OFF!" Cid's voice yelled, the ship taking off immediately, going off at a steady speed, which was becoming increasingly faster.

"I'm floating a most peculiar way." Kiros said as he began feeling his weight sink, never having gone off into space before.

"The stars look very different today, don't they?" Zell said in amazement, looking out at the specs of light. Selphie let out a sigh and led them towards the Observatory. What they saw when it came into range scared all of them. The Observatory had indeed been damaged: Glass was shattered, there was fire spreading in certain areas, and some pieces of furniture and equipment floating outside of it. They landed in it's open dock, hoping with every inch of them that the ship would still be there when they had completed their mission. Squall stepped out first, followed closely by his squad. Their eyes surveyed every possible spot, trying to discover who or what had caused all this damage.

"Get your weapons out, we don't know where they could be." Squall said, drawing his gunblade and holding it at his side. The others drew their weapons as well. Shotguns, nunchaku, katal, chainwhip, gauntlets. All of these were in the hands of their owners, who were creeping around the base like ninja. Squall was several feet ahead of them, peering around every corner. Finally he saw two scientists running across. He called out to them. They stopped dead in their tracks and looked at him.

"Do either of you two know what caused this?" He called to them. They stuttered and finally answered him with a point in the direction they had come. Squall threw his arm forward and his squad followed him.

What happened next, no one had expected. They tore into the burning room and expected to see some sort of malfunction, or even some of the Order. What they saw, however, cause their jaws to drop.

"Oh my God..."

"It's impossible."

"No way..."

"But he can't have.."

"..."

They were all awestruck at what they saw. Squall remained silent. The man stood atop their burning staircase, his weapon pointing directly ahead. Squall recognized the weapon at first glance. It was a hybrid weapon, the handle being that of a projectile, the other half being a blade. The Burned Hyperion.

Seifer Almasy stood atop the burning staircase, the heart of all the destruction.


	4. Crash Land and Off We Go

The fire was spreading like a virus. Neither party had moved an inch. On the side of the heroes, they were all in shock. No one could believe that the man who had been so respected was now, once again, standing against them. The other party, however, stared blankly at them. Seifer didn't seem to recognize, or even notice them. Their entire relationship flashed through Squall's eyes. He remembered when he and Seifer would get into street-fights at the Orphanage, when they would argue in the Garden, when he prepared to assassinate Edea, and Seifer stood between them. Everything they had been through seemed to have escaped Seifer's mind. Squall, knowing that it was his duty to stop this madness, raised his gunblade and began to command Seifer.

"Seifer, I order you to stand down, you are under arrest." Squall said to Seifer, beginning to step forward towards him. Seifer neither stood down nor spoke. He stood still, looking down at Squall, but seeming as though he had recognized him at all.

"...Let's get out of here. Squall can handle this." Kiros said, turning on his heels and walking out of the burning room. The others, sans Zell, followed closely behind him. Zell would stay and fight with Squall, being just as hurt by Seifer's betrayal as Squall.

"Seifer, come on, get down. Let's go home!" Zell shouted at him, hoping against hope that he would respond. Seifer still did nothing, and Squall's temper was rising by the minute.

"Zell, go help the others. I have a feeling Seifer's not the biggest of our problems." Squall ordered his friend. Zell hesistated, he didn't want to see the victor or the loser of this battle, but he knew it was inevitable. He bode farewell to his friends, and ran off in search of Rinoa and the others, hopping over flames and falling parts of the Observatory.

"Seifer, I don't know what's going on in your head, but if you caused this mess I have to stop you." The lion said to his old friend. Now Seifer _did_ react. He looked up at Squall, who was now mere feet away from him, and nodded. Seifer's eyes were burning with sadness behind them. His face showed no emotion, his body wouldn't move, but his eyes definitely were sad. Squall, while reluctant to cut down his old friend and rival, raised his gunblade. His grip tightened on the hilt, his eyes shut, and the blade fell. He slashed down at Seifer with all his might, hoping that the battle with end would that.

It was only the beginning.

Seifer had gripped the blade between two of his knuckles. He wrenched his arm and the gunblade, along with Squall, flew into the left wall. Squall got up quickly and ran at Seifer, dragging his gunblade across the floor. Seifer quickly launched a kick, which hit Squall square on the jaw. Squall once again fell, only this time he bounced off the wall and down the stairs. His head began to pound, his vision was impaired, but he got up again. He ran up the stairs and began his Renzokuken, but was instantly paralyzed by an elbow drive into the sternum. The pain had only just begun, as a palm drove straight into his nose, and then a knee into the sternum. It was a full orchastratic medley of pain, and it just kept coming. His gunblade fell down the stairs, but he was being pummeled against the wall, blood shooting out of his mouth with every blow. Seifer still showed no ounce of emotion in his face, but his eyes grew sadder every second. Squall began to see the dark abyss not far off. He knew at that moment he was never going to see Rinoa again, and that his entire life was meant to end here. His head fell limply on his shoulders and he saw, through the shadows, his gunblade. The fire, which had become very dim in Squall's eyes, suddenly sprung back to life. His hand shot up and grabbed Seifer's firmly, squeezing it to the point where several bones shattered. The hold which Seifer had on Squall's neck was instantly broken, and Squall darted after his gunblade. While this would have been an easy feat normally, Seifer was making it increasingly difficult. Firagra was being shot at Squall from every direction, and he was forced to roll into walls to avoid it.

Finally, when he managed to make it to his gunblade, he felt his hand being crushed by a large leather object. Squall screamed in agony as he felt the joints in his fingers being broken, and looked up to see Ten's cocky smirk.

"Now it's hardly a fair fight with only you being armed, don't you think?" Ten said as he pulled Seifer's Burned Hyperion out of his jacket, tossing it to his faithful servant. Seifer caught it and let out his first word.

"This is where the fun begins!"

The grip Ten's foot had on Squall's hand lightened, and both looked in shock at Seifer. Squall believed that whatever Trance Seifer was in had just been broken, but Ten had instantly regained his smile. He surrounded his body in flames and disappeared, ordering Seifer to kill his old rival, and then proceed with the destruction of the Observatory.

Now the battle truly could begin. Squall rose and thrusted at Seifer, who parried quickly, stomp-kicking Squall into a wall. Squall dove his foot backwards into the wall and launched himself like a torpedo at Seifer, his gunblade crossed against his chest, ready for a slash. Seifer slashed down, the only definite move he had, only to see Squall _spin_ past him, his gunblade slashing in every direction. The jacket he wore, which had been greatly torn as it was, now had a fresh new cut over the sleeve. What's more, and this truly gave Squall a smile, was that Seifer was bleeding. While he believed previously that Seifer had been nothing but a zombie, he now knew that he was in fact alive, and that he could be killed. Their gunblades clashed, and they had a firm lock on each other.

"Seifer, turn back now, and I won't kill you!" Squall begged him, yet secretly enjoying the battle as much as he possibly could.

"..." He could not respond, but Squall was sure that he had seen the grin he had become so familiar with. Their gunblades were now emitting sparks, which were flying in every direction. Squall had finally managed to find a break in Seifer's attack, and stomp-kicked him up the stairs. They continued to duel up the steps, each one trying to go in for the killing stroke, yet neither giving an inch. Finally they reached the top of the spiraling staircase, and Seifer was knocked back to open the door. They slid into the main control room, the duel becoming more fierce with each blow. Sweat fell like raindrops from their faces, yet neither stopped to take a breath. It was more like they were dancing, than actually swordfighting. At one point, Squall was leading the dance, then Seifer would take control, only to quickly lose it back to Squall. This duel seemed to be what they wanted more than anything right now, and they had become oblivious to the fact that their fighting was now starting a fire. The sparks had lit up several of the computer's monitors, and the fire was spreading all around them. Squall was now working himself into exhaustion, yet Seifer was still going as he was when he began. No...If Squall didn't know any better, he'd say Seifer was actually getting _stronger _than when they started. The duel had turned in the favor of Seifer, and Squall was now forced into the defensive, having no means of attacking Seifer. Suddenly Squall remembered Aryon, and his teachings. His eyes fell closed, and he let go of all the conscious being he had. Squall was no longer being attacked by Seifer, but was neither attacking him. The entire area around him had stopped moving, and he was moving swiftly around the room. He bounced around the room, flashes of light coming from his gunblade whenever he passed Seifer, yet nothing immediately happening. Nothing _immediately_ happening. Once Squall had placed his feet firmly on the ground and the moved resumed it's motion, Seifer's back exploded in blood, and he fell to his knees. Squall walked to him briskly, holding his gunblade firmly in his broken fingers.

"You should have stopped when I gave you the chance. I don't regret this." He said as he raised his gunblade. Seifer turned his head slightly, and Squall's arm was grabbed by a feminine hand.

"Seifer, get up. We need you for some more missions." Zeru said as she loosened her grip on Squall, throwing him away. Seifer quickly ran over to her side, breathing heavily and resting on his gunblade, which was driven into the ground. Squall turned and saw her pink and silver hair flowing, Seifer eyeing him evily.

"What do you want?"

"You should know, brother."

"What is it you want with me?"

"You should know."

"I hate it when people speak in riddles." Squall mumbled to himself as he raised his gunblade and ran at Zeru. Seifer instantly intervened, slashing Squall in the stomach. Zeru stood still, and Seifer backed Squall into the wall. Squall elbowed through the blades and into Seifer's nose, knocking him back. Instantly, however, Zeru was in motion. She had drawn her two two new weapons: A pair of swords connected with a chain, one of them with a strange black blade, the other with a straight white blade. She spun the chain and cut up Squall's neck, Seifer taking his back and driving his hilt into Squall's back. Squall fell to his side, avoiding another spinning move from Zeru. He rose lazily, raising his gunblade above his head and trying to perform the move he used on Seifer previously. While he did manage to move faster than the average human, Zeru was ten steps ahead of him. She kicked her minion aside and casually stepped away, Squall's gunblade slicing straight through one of the computers. Zeru was now at the door, Seifer standing beside her.

"I'm so sorry I have to cut our game short, but it seems that our brother has already gotten what we came here for," Zeru said to Squall, Seifer turning around and walking out. "But you'll be hearing about us soon, don't you worry." Squall began to charge at her, but was instantly thrown aback by a pair of hilts to his sternum and stomach. Zeru smiled at him and disappeared as quietly as she had arrived, leaving Squall to writhe in his pain.

The writhing would not last long, as Squall was suddenly thrown back into one of the monitors, his concussion now becoming increasingly worse. He managed to stay conscious and looked at the broken screen, seeing that the entire construct was losing altitude, heading straight for the Earth.

"This is just one hell of a day." He said to himself as he turned around and ran out of the room, clinging to the wall for dear life, as the observatory was now turning vertical so that everything was falling down to it's front. Squall then managed to turn himself into Spiderman and ran up the walls, not breaking gravity at this point. After five minutes of searching, Squall found his friends in a burning room, fighting off several low-ranking members of the Order.

"Rinoa!" He shouted at his fiancè, who finished off her opponent and looked at him, screaming at how battered he looked. The others soon dispatched of their opponents and ran to their commander.

"The Observatory is heading straight for the Earth. We have to stop it somehow" He said, and instantly Kiros and Selphie took off for the control room. Irvine and Zell followed closely behind them, Irvine's hair now flowing in every direction as the band which held his pony tail had been torn.

"What happened to Seifer? You didn't..?" Rinoa asked Squall, who shook his head and ran off after the others, Rinoa following closely behind him.

"What's the report, Selphie?" Squall asked Selphie, who was working frantically on the Observatory, trying to stablilize it.

"No good, there's no way to stop it. Our only hope is to land in one of the oceans and hope it's deep enough to put out the fires." Selphie said to Squall, spinning in her chair and pulling on her hair.

"I managed to get a call to Laguna. He's on his way to get us once we crash. If there's anything left to pick up, that is." Kiros said as he began to type in several keys to brace the Observatory for impact. The entire construct was now erupting in flames, and Squall had covered Rinoa with his own body to protect her from the flames. She began to struggle with him, as she demanded that he let her see what was going on around them. They felt the Observatory beginning to shake furiously, and Irvine was thrown violently out of the room, and did not return. Selphie was now screaming curse words so fast at Kiros, who was calmly typing the keys, that no one in the room could understand when one started and the other ended. Suddenly one of the screens began to beep furiously, and Selphie jumped ontop of it to silence it. Kiros knocked her off and read the what it had written on it, turning to Squall.

The Observatory shook again and then suddenly they felt themselves becoming lighter. Zell tore towards the window, seeing the latter half of the ship floating off in the distance.

"I think we lost something." Zell said, turning to Selphie, who was now hotter than the fires because of how hard she was working to ensure that _they_ didn't end up like that. The fires were growing ever higher, and it's speed was growing, but they could now see the cool ocean water beneath them.

"Squall, we have a slight problem here. We're coming in too hot, we'll destroy ourselves on impact!" Selphie said, her voice now trembling with fear.

"I think we should--" Squall began, but was interrupted by a knocking from the floor. Everyone looked out the left window to see Irvine piloting the Ragnarok, which was now supporting half the weight of the Observatory.

The ocean was now feet away, and Irvine had turned off to circle around, so that he could pick them up when they surfaced. Everyone held their breath, and the Observatory crashed into the water, splashing it all over the place. After 10 seconds beneath the sea, it rose to the surface, floating easily. The motley crew inside all let out both sighs of relief and shouts of excitement, Irvine losing so much control of himself that the Ragnarok almost flew straight into the water itself.

"Well, it's not the best mission in history, but you got the job done, with minimal casualties." Cid said to the crew, who were each sitting in chairs, towels wrapped around them. "The Observatory was pulled from the waters and is being relaunched in a few weeks. Crisis avoided, I'd say."

Irvine had been promoted to the rank of Liutenant because of his quick thinking, and Squall's wounds had proved fairly treatable. Rinoa was now happily shopping for wedding supplies, and Squall was conveniently disappearing whenever the notion arrived. Zell had reclused to his room, where he was said to have been stuffing his face with hot dogs.

Laguna and Squall were walking down the Garden again, Laguna apparently called Squall out on this day.

"Good job with that Observatory, couldn't have done it better myself." He said to Squall, who cracked a smile and laughed slightly.

"Yeah, thanks." He said as he turned to look at Rinoa, who was looking annoyed across a table from Selphie, who was laughing her ass off.

"Yeah, that really took some guts, especially since you had to fight your old friend on it." Laguna began again.

"But that's not what you called me out here for, is it?" Squall said, deciding not to waste time dilly-dallying with the President of Esthar.

"No, it's not. I called you out here today because of some news that we got." Squall's attention suddenly shifted from his fiancè to Laguna. "It seems that one of our soldiers has discovered the location of Ellone."

Squall stopped dead in his tracks, Laguna apparently anticipated this and stopped as well.

"Where...Where is she?" Squall asked Laguna.

"She was last seen near the northern caves. Squall, I know she means a lot to you, but I've already got my men on her trail, we'll find her." Laguna said to the air, as Squall had already taken off running to his room.

"Laguna told me about Ellone, Squall. Are you going to go after her?" Rinoa asked at the doorway of her lover. Squall was packing some clothes and food, not looking at Rinoa.

"She was like a sister to me, Rinoa, I have to find her." Squall said finally, his packing done. He put his hand on his jacket to pick it up, but his broken fingers were crushed by Rinoa's, who was now beside him.

"So that's it? You're going to get up and leave me again? I don't think so, Squall. We need you here. I need you here..." Rinoa said, not loosening her grip on his hand. Squall turned his head and thought for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak.

"I have to find her, Rinoa. Please, it's not that I want to leave you, but I have to know that she's alright." He said to her, quickly pulling his jacket out from under her hand and slipping it over his shoulders.

"Well you aren't going alone, this time you're taking me with you." Rinoa said as she stood up, Squall turning on his place to eye her.

"What?"

"You heard me, we're going together. I'm not going to let you just disappear on your own this time." Rinoa answered to him. Squall knew it was pointless to deny her this, as she had already made up her mind and would, as Squall knew, fight him to get what she wanted. Squall grabbed his bag and threw it over his back, putting his arm around the woman he loved so much, and they walked out of the Garden, setting off to find their missing companion.


	5. Sins of Past, Sins of Present

Laguna and his soldiers had accompanied them to Esthar, and supplied them with vehicles to reach their destination. Squall and Rinoa rode on the same motorcycle, Squall piloting and Rinoa carrying their belongings on her back. Rinoa, who was not at all as worried about Ellone as Squall was, was trying her best to catch a glimpse of the sights, but Squall had the motorcycle in full gear, and was not willing to lose any time he could spend with Ellone. The dirt was beiong thrown up behind them, their wheels were now being reduced because of the speed and friction, and Rinoa's eyes were piling up with dust. Finally Squall pulled the cycle to a stop, and Rinoa quickly got off to vomit. Squall, who didn't notice that they had not eaten in days, or that he had just cleared ten thousand miles in under a week, realized that Rinoa was not used to this kind of action, and decided to let her rest.

"You shouldn't have come." Squall said to her, pulling his hair behind his ear.

"I would rather be here vomiting up my organs than back at home worrying whether or not you were still walking." She answered him, sitting back and wiping her mouth. Squall remained silent, looking at her totally perplexed by her statement. Her hair was dirty with leaves and dust, her face was a sickly green, her dress was torn and burned, but she had the familiar smile which Squall had fallen in love with on first glance. He knew that even though he was putting her through hell, she was happy to be with him. This realization made Squall feel like a selfish little punk. Here he was, next to a woman who was sacrificing her health and wardrobe just to be with him, and he was thinking of another. He wanted so much to be thinking of Rinoa, and how he could make her happy for once, yet all he could think about was what kind of danger Ellone was in. Without another word, Squall stood up and walked over to the motorcycle. Rinoa ran, drunkedly, over to him, asking what he was doing.

"I'm going to go on alone. I'll be back in the morning." He said to her as he hopped onto the motorcycle, turning it on and beginning to drive off.

"I'm going to chain him to a wall when he comes back..." Rinoa said under her breath as she began to punch the ground.

Squall was still confused while he was riding. He couldn't figure out why he wanted to go alone, rather than just turn back and go home with her. He wanted to be happy with Rinoa, but he wanted to know that Ellone was safe, that she was happy. Aside from the sound of Squall's vehicle tearing up the dirt, the night was silent. The moon was full above him, and all the animals were sleeping. He was put on edge because of the dead silence, but wasn't concentrating on his safety. Now he could see the eerie blue cave up ahead, and knew that inside it was Ellone. Something deep in his gut told him that he would find her inside the crystals, and that he'd be able to go back home at peace. The motorcycle spun around and he parked it outside the cave. He picked his gunblade up and tied it around his back, walking briskly inside of the cave. At this point the moon was directly above the entrance, and it made the crystals shine brightly, so that Squall could see his reflection in each and every one of them. Or maybe it wasn't his reflection...Maybe the crystal's had some power, as Squall not only saw his reflection in them, he was hearing voices. The voices echoed throughout the cave, but they were not foreign to Squall. Voices of Edea, of Rinoa, of his friends, of Ten, Jett and Zeru, of himself... All throughout the caves were the voices of his relations. All these words he knew, as they had been imprinted on his brain. The cave somehow knew everything that Squall had ever seen, and was causing him to relive it. His feet began to drag, and he felt fatigued. His vision became blurred, but he saw the end clearly. The brightness of the cave was becoming dark in the corner of his eyes, but he saw her perfectly. At the end of the cave was a woman. She was standing straight up and reading something off the walls, mumbling whatever she was reading under her breath.

"Ellone?" Squall called out. The woman turned around. It wasn't Ellone, but Squall knew who she was. The cold stare she gave him, her pink-silver hair. Zeru too seemed to be in a trance, but recognized who she was talking to.

"Squall...Why are you here?" She responded to him. Squall was in shock at how calm she was, but replied just as politely.

"I'm looking for someone. Why are you here, Zeru?" He said to her, she turned back around and placed her hand on the wall, beginning to read it again.

"I'm looking for myself." She said to him. Squall didn't understand what she meant, but then realized what Aryon had told him before: the Triplets and all of the Order had been created from his past, so therefore all of them must look like him. Zeru, however, was not him. She was a female, obviously, and was clearly more powerful than he could ever hope to be. He realized that there must be some cause for this, and that Zeru must be fundamentally different from her brothers.

"Tell me, big brother...Why did you abandon us?" She said to him, reading the next part of the writing on the wall.

"I didn't abandon you, Zeru. I had no idea that you three were created, I couldn't have been there to help you. I'm sorry..." Squall answered her, trying to sound as understanding as possible.

"Ten told us all his stories about you...About how you were the only one who could defeat Ultemicia...About how you would accept us no matter what, and show us to the new world. The Griever would appear if you told him to, Squall..." Zeru said silently, her hand falling off the wall and tears forming in her eyes.

"Zeru, I don't know anything about summoning Griever. Why do you want him to appear so badly? What is Ten planning?" Squall said as he walked up to her, squatting down to her so he could be eye-to-eye with her. Zeru would not look at him, she was too busy hiding her tears from him. There was something to this war that Squall didn't understand, and that only Zeru or someone from the Order could explain to him.

"Squall...Big brother, we're not...None of us here are actually real. Not me, not Jett..Not even Ten. Ten, who was the last one of us created and thus closer to the current form of you...he knows more about life. He knows what it feels like to love someone, to be loved back...He says that if we summon Griever...He says that the Griever will take us back with him, and give us all life." Zeru choked out, as the tears were now flooding down her face. "but then when you disappeared with the "perfect"...he says that you were corrupted, and that you would no longer be sympathetic to help us. Squall, you have to believe me, Ten's good at heart, we all are. We just wanted to find somewhere to be home. The perfect, though...he said otherwise. He got to you first, and then Ten...Ten changed. Now it wasn't something we wanted, it was something we _needed_, by any means necessary. He was willing to kill your friend Quistis...just to get to there..."

"Who's the perfect one?" Squall said to her as she wiped her tears away and prepared to speak again.

"I thought you...You don't know? Aryon. He's the perfect one. He's the last form of you, created from your future." Zeru said, looking up at Squall, who was now in shock. Aryon? The man who taught him all his new skills, was the one who had triggered the events of this war? Everything that had happened was suddenly flipped upside down.

"Squall...Ten...He's planning to do whatever it takes to get you to unleash Griever. He wants nothing more than to get us home, but at the cost of your happiness. Please, Squall, save my brother. Jett and him are the only things I have, don't let them destroy themselves. If you have to, please leave them alive. I'll take care of them and make sure they never cause you trouble ever again." Zeru begged her big brother, clutching at his jacket and sobbing deeply into his shoulder. Squall became instantly uncomfortable, but decided that he had to do the right thing.

"I promise you, Zeru...I will never let--" He was interrupted by a cold voice calling out behind him.

"Zeru, why don't you come back now? We're dying to hear of your playtime with big brother." Ten said, standing at the entrance of the cave, Jett on his left side, Seifer on his right.

"Ten, Zeru told me everything. Look, I'll summon Griever for you. You and all the others can go with him, and live happily." Squall said to him, Ten's smile growing ever bigger.

"No, big brother. You're a bit too late now. I don't want you to summon Griever and go on living your life. You destroyed most of my family, and I can't let you live for that. Why should we be the one's to leave? You've had 23 years to live out your life. Don't you think it's about time you let someone else have their turn?" Ten said to him, drawing his katana out and pointing it at his brother. Squall reached for the handle of his gunblade, but then remembered the promise he had just made to Zeru, and let his hand fall to his side.

"Not even going to fight back? I suppose you finally realized that I'm right. Good for you. Well, I guess this is good-bye, brother." Zeru said as he pulled his arm back and then thrusted into the heart of his brother. The blood shot everywhere. Jett shuttered at all the blood, Squall's eyes widened to dramatic proportions, Ten's smile vanished, and Zeru fell. She had thrown herself in between Squall and Ten, taking in the full attack, losing blood and life faster every second. Ten now had total fear in his eyes.

"JETT!" He screamed in a hoarse voice. Jett ran forward, tears running down his face, grabbed onto his fallen sister, and disappeared. Ten was now furious, too furious to fight. He stood up straight and looked at Seifer.

"Finish him off. I don't want to see any of him ever again." Ten commanded him, Seifer's Burned Hyperion appearing in his hand instantly. Ten disappeared just as Jett had a second ago, and Seifer looked down at his former comrade. Squall stood weakly, he was in shock at what Zeru had just done, but knew he had to come back into focus. Now Seifer, truly his greatest rival, was ready to go in for the death stroke, and if he hoped to win, he would have to kill him as well. The gunblade around his back was pulled into his hand, and the two men began to circle each other. The blades were inches away from each other, centimeters...The distance between the two was shrinking until finally the tips of the blades touched, and the battle commenced.

Seifer lept out at Squall, who jumped back to avoid a slash to the face. Seifer was now much more powerful than he had ever been, dealing strikes to his old friend faster than Squall could counter. The crystals around them were shattering, and the cave was becoming smaller and smaller. Squall knew that eventually he would run out of places to hop to, and decided that the only way he could stop this was to succesfully counter one of Seifer's attacks, or face death. When another one of Seifer's slashes came at his side, Squall swung his gunblade down and knocked Seifer off balance. Now it was Squall's turn to bombard him. The slashes were moving faster than Seifer's eyes could see, coming in at all directions. Seifer, who was never as quick on his feet as Squall, was successfully blocking all of his attacks, but not countering any of them. The battle was becoming fierce, sweat was pouring from both of their faces, but the battle had become more than Good vs. Evil, now it wasn't anything. The two had been waiting for this battle all of their lives. Seifer, though corrupted, was obviously enjoying this fight in his heart. Even Squall, who would never admit it, was greatly enjoying their battle. Once again, however, the tables turned. Seifer's blade spun in a circle and now he was pounding back on Squall. Squall was again using his leap technique, but now Seifer had expected it. Rather than dizzy Squall with amazing sword slashes, Seifer lifted his foot and stomp-kicked his opponent through the crystal walls, and into another area of the cave. This area seemed to be on some sort of tilt, as Squall was already sliding off the edge when Seifer lept in for round two. Squall back-flipped to his feet, and now the balance of the floor was shifting between Squall and Seifer. Squall decided that this time he would be the one to attack, and ran out towards Seifer, holding his gunblade at his side. While this would have been Squall's finishing Renzokuken, the floor decided to shift it's weight to the side where he had ran over to, and now both were sliding off the edge of the crystal balancing board. They were falling down into a dark pit, but continued to battle. The swords were clashing, but they knew they were running out of air to fight in, and wondered if death awaited them at the end of the pit. Finally they threw a kick to each other which sent them flying to opposite ends of the cave. Squall grabbed onto an off-shooting crystal, clinging to it for dear life, while Seifer cooly landed on his feet on the opposite side. Seifer lept from his side of the cave over to the one where Squall was at, staring down at his old friend and laughing. He threw his foot down onto Squall's fingers, crushing them. Squall screamed out in pain, and let go of the crystal he was clinging to. He was falling again, but this time he could see the bottom of the pit. Several of the crystal's had formed into jagged rocks, and were ready to pierce every conceivable area of Squall's body.

Seifer threw a rock down and heard it clank all the way to the bottom, accepting that his opponent was now certainly dead. He turned around and sheathed his gunblade, walking off to go find his masters. Suddenly he heard a rip in the air behind him, and turned around. He saw nothing and decided that it must have been the wind, and turned around to continue on his way. He was stopped, however, by a quick fist into his jaw by Squall Leonhart.

"Next time make sure there aren't any offshoots." He said as he began round three, this time the fight entirely in his favor. Their swords were clashing and creating blinding lights. The two were now exhausted, almost to the point of fatigue, but neither would give an inch. Squall's determination to go back home to his fiancè, and Seifer's to finally defeat his enemy were equal, and the two were fighting just as fiercly as they had when they begun, if not more so. Seifer decided to break their sword dance and swung down at Squall's legs. Squall anticipated this move and dive-rolled over the incoming blade, grabbing onto some of the dust from shattered crystals and throwing it into Seifer's eyes. Seifer fell backwards and pawed at his eyes, trying to get the sharp dust out. Squall stood up and took his gunblade, preparing to thrust directly into Seifer's heart. He ran forward, his feet echoing behind each step. He lunged his arm forward at Seifer, but Seifer had already cleared the dust from his eyes. His sword came in at the side, cutting Squall's sword arm deep, almost to the point of the bone, causing him to fall backwards and grip his bleeding arm. Seifer stood up and pointed his sword at Squall's face, preparing for his onslaught. Since Squall was now unable to use his right hand to fight, he tossed his gunblade in the air into his left hand. It was a foreign feeling to him, the gunblade felt much heavier than it ever had, and his balance now was shifted. He had little time to ponder how to work his gunblade now, however, as Seifer was coming in with a second stroke. He lifted his left hand up and blocked it, then spun around and threw a kick to Seifer's side. Now he realized that he had an advantage: Seifer had never fought anyone who held their weapon in the left-hand, so wouldn't know any counters to it. Squall was now getting more accustomed to his left-hand, not only parrying Seifer's attacks, but throwing some in as well (however most of these attacks were kicks, as that's all Squall knew how to do in this mirror-fight). Seifer decided that enough was enough and went in for a killing thrust. Squall lept inside of Seifer's range, narrowly avoiding his thrust. Now he knew was the only chance he would have. Enough _had_ been enough, as Squall brought his gunblade up and thrusted into Seifer's stomach. Seifer dropped his gunblade, while Squall drove his deeper into his old friend. Seifer's eyes were regaining their familiar color, but was still just as dull. He was not down yet, however. He raised his fist and threw it into Squall's chin, sending him flying back, which pulled the gunblade out from his stomach. Seifer put his hand over the hole and ran forward, throwing another punch to Squall. Squall spun around and hit the ground with a thump, and Seifer came in to finish him off. He kicked Squall in the side with such force that Squall was thrown back onto his feet, ableit coughing up blood. Seifer came in again to punch directly into Squall's nose, intending to finish him off, but Squall had already read his move. Squall flipped the Burned Hyperion up over Seifer's head, caught it in his right hand, and used a scissor-esque maneuver to slice off Seifer's hand. Seifer fell back onto the ground and began to scream. Now Squall realized what had happened. He dropped Seifer's gunblade and ran over to him.

"Seifer, can you hear me?" Squall said to him, looking up and down his body, trying to see any signs of life.

"..." Seifer would not respond. Squall wondered if he were dead or was still in the trance that Ten had put him in.

"Seifer, please say something." Squall said again, hoping against hope that he would get at least some sort of response.

"...Looks like you got me back for that scar on your face, huh Leonhart?" Seifer said to him, tucking his bleeding arm into his shirt and breathing much heavier now. While the rest of his body was now losing functions, Seifer's eyes had regained their color.

"Looks like it." Squall answered, holding back a laugh as he looked at the same scar that he had given to Seifer.

"Well, this is how we were supposed to die: either you kill me, or I kill you. You're the better warrior, so you killed me. I don't have any complaints." Seifer explained to him, leaning back and taking his last few breaths.

"Seifer, I need to know. Where are they hiding?" Squall questioned him. Seifer, who was now on his last two breaths, said back to him

"The place where you were happy, Squall. Matron Edea's. They've been there all along, just waiting for you to come after them. Kill that Ten, okay? Tell him Seifer says hello. I'll defeat you next time, Leonhart." And with that he took his last breath, and Seifer Almasy was dead.

"Yeah...right." Squall said as he stood up, picking up his friends body.

He burried Seifer right outside the cave where he had died, and placed a hand on the gunblade which Seifer had swung since the day they were allowed to choose their weapons.

The night had now regained it's noises. There were animals howling, water flowing, wind blowing, Rinoa screaming. Squall had, in the chaos that had ensued, entirely forgotten that he had left Rinoa in the middle of nowhere. He parked the motorcycle and walked limply over to her. Rinoa, who was still plenty angry that Squall had left her behind, was suddenly filled with terror as she saw the man she loved barely able to walk. She ran over to him and pulled him over to the water, setting him near it and beginning to wipe off his blood. Squall wanted to thank her and go to sleep, but knew he owed her more. He told her the entire story of the events of the evening, with Rinoa tearing up at the news that Seifer had died.

Before the night was over, the two had come to a decision: The Order...No, Ten. Ten must be stopped from accomplishing his goal, and that the entire Balamb Garden would be involved in the final attack.


	6. Into The Unknown

Time had not stopped with Seifer's death. Everything was still aging, and Squall knew he was running out of time. It had been almost a month since he had killed his best friend. The Garden was losing it's confidence, and Squall was losing hope. He stood ankle-deep in a puddle of water, looking down at his reflection in the waves. The reflections were deep shades of grey and black. Walking up behind him was his one true love, who placed her soft hands on his shoulders, hoping to give him some feeling of hope.

"We'll find him, you know. He can't be that far away, he needs you." Rinoa said to him. Squall turned around and gave her a faint smile. He knew what she was trying to do, and wanted more than anything to agree with her words, but he was unable to. He found himself feeling caved in. Before he laughed at the idea of ever being in charge, of having responsibilites, now he took it upon himself. He was the one who decided to keep leading the Garden, the one who decided to charge against the Order, and the one who decided Seifer was to die. Squall Leonhart had come a long way from being the reclusive boy who was cast as the hero. Now he was the commander, and he needed to show backbone. He knew that, although things surrounding him seemed impossible, the heart of the Lion would guide him through it. Squall stood stronger and placed his hand atop Rinoa's.

Inside her mind, different thoughts pulsed. She thought to herself, "I know Squall, he won't let me down...But is he really strong enough to defeat Ten?" She herself had doubts, and didn't know how to voice them to her lover. She had thought him dead before, and could not stand the thought of him actually being so. She knew, however, that she could not, and would not, stop him. She knew that she would have to go with him, and watch him either kill or be killed. She smiled up at him and embraced him as close to her as she could. The reflections in the water suddenly became filled with color.

"Anything yet?" Irvine asked one of the surveyors.

"No, nothing yet. It's as if they just cleared off the planet." He answered to his captain. Irvine sighed and replied in an angry monotone.

"Of course there's nothing. There's never anything, why would we find something now?"

"I FOUND SOMETHING!" Zell shouted out, Irvine falling out of his chair and the surveyor which he had just been talking to sporting a grin.

"What is it, Zell?" The angry gunman questioned.

"Well, I'm not sure. I found Ten, it looks like. He's here, that's what I know, but it's like...I dunno, he's not here. He's sort of...Trapped in between dimensions." Zell answered. This apparently wasn't the answer that Irvine had hoped for, as he now seemed even angrier than before.

"What do you mean, 'trapped?' Can we go get him?" Irvine asked, his voice becoming much more demanding.

"Well, no..When I say trapped, I mean both ways. He can't come out, and we can't go in. It seems like he's just locked things in pretty tight." Zell answered again, he himself now becoming quite annoyed with Irvine's questions.

"Can he cause any damage from where he is?"

"Tough to say...From where I'm standing, it looks like he's able to send forth some GF's that might cause some damage, but I can't say for certain that they'd make it through." Zell answered, Irvine already making for the door.

"We have to tell Squall."

"Chronia." Squall informed his gunslinging friend."He's in Chronia." At this Irvine looked even more confused.

"And just where _is_ Chronia?" Irvine asked. Squall smirked and rudely answered back.

"Chronia, in all it's forms, is an area in between times. It never grows older, yet isn't new. Humans can't find it because no human can travel through time." Squall began.

"But we've already proven that that law doesn't apply to us." Irvine interrupted, Squall nodded to his friend and together they were off to see the only person who could help them with their time traveling escapade's.

"Matron Edea, we know where to go now. All we need now is for you to get us to Chronia." Squall said to his old matron, who seemed shocked at the question that Squall had just asked her.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Squall? This is a big journey, and there's a high risk that you may not make it back." Edea said to him. Squall stood at his full height and proudly answered her question.

"Ten...Has caused a lot more suffering than just Seifer's death. If nothing else, I will take him down with me. I don't have a doubt in my mind that I will not fail."

"Well...Fine. Whenever you're ready." Edea said to him. Squall was shocked. Was that really all it took? Just an "okay" and whenever he was ready?

"We've been ready since Seifer died." Zell said at the doorway. Apparently all of the troupe had been listening in on the conversation, and all were eager to see Ten's demise

"Okay then...Everyone, good luck." Edea said as she raised her arms and began to chant the incantation to send the soldiers and friends off to the realm of suspended time. Rinoa and Squall locked hands, Zell was trembling in fear, Selphie was hiding inside of Irvine's coat, and Irvine was sporting quite the lustful grin. Edea's eyes flashed a bright green, and in a second the group was gone. Cid walked in directly after, looking to his wife and wondering what had just happened. "They're going to need it.

Another green flash and they were there. Everyone looked around. The realm was not what anyone had expected. The area was covered in an eerie fog, and a distant flute could be heard playing. Rinoa was trembling in Squall's arms, as was Squall himself. He looked around, and everyone was trembling. For a moment they didn't know what had caused them to be so cold, but when they looked down they found their answer. Their feet were deep in snow.

"But there's no clouds.." Selphie said. She pointed upwards and the rest of them looked up. She was right, there wasn't even the faintest remain of a cloud in the sky. They could perfectly see every star and the beautiful moon up in the sky. While in any other circumstance this would seem perfect, the fog and the instance caused them to feel on edge, tense. The snow was falling on them once again, and they knew that if they didn't press forward they would certainly freeze to death. Everyone started walking forward, following behind Squall. Their muscles were becoming cramped, and they wanted a break. Where was the end of this field? Would they survive this condition, and if they did, would they survive the encounter with Ten? Squall looked down, when suddenly he noticed something odd about his steps. The foot prints that he were making, that he had been making, there were none. It seemed as though for all their work they hadn't moved an inch.

"You've got to be kidding me." Squall said silently, the others quickly catching onto the problem.

"WHAT THE SHIT, MAN?!" Zell and Irvine shouted in tandem, Selphie resorted to babyish pouting. The group was now regretting the decision they made, yet there was a ray of hope that shone upon them.

"You look like you need a guide." A voice called to them from behind. How long had it been there? There was no way anyone could have just arrived. Everyone turned on their heels and jaws fell to their ankles. How could _this _be possible? There was no way.

Quistis Trepe stood before them, the same smile she had always had stretched across her face.


End file.
